Manifesto

It’s not hard to see why: these extraordinary kids are still expected to navigate the labyrinth of an ordinary world that expects them to be just, well, ordinary.

The study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) focused specifically on the self-esteem of children and adolescents with ADHD. The results mentioned above were found to be true in both drug-treated and drug-free ADHD subjects, compared to a control group of non-ADHD kids.

As parents of extraordinary kids ourselves, we too have seen first-hand how self-esteem and confidence are constantly eroded by the expectations of today’s world. If you’re one of the more than 12 million parents raising one or more of these extraordinary children, you’re probably not surprised to hear this.

What might surprise you, however, is that one of the most fundamental aspects of parenting is a big contributor to this issue. More on that shortly.

Being the parent of a child with ADHD means you have what we call an Extraordinary Family.

You know the joys of raising an extraordinary child with all the benefits this “disorder” brings. Every kid is different, obviously, but it’s well documented that these kids exhibit higher levels of creativity, curiosity, ingenuity, fairness, humor, energy and enthusiasm for life! You also likely know the unique challenges of raising these extraordinary kids who run headlong into the established expectations of an ordinary world.

A generation ago, these kids were labeled as “lazy” or “troublemakers” or even “intellectually challenged” (as well as other, much less kind terms). Today’s world recognizes and understands ADHD better, but the truth is that these kids are still viewed as “broken” in some way. The name itself speaks volumes about how it’s viewed: a “deficit” and a “disorder”. Something that needs to be fixed. Whether you subscribe to that point of view or not, few can argue that the world still expects these extraordinary kids to function the way “the rest of the world” does.

As a parent raising a kid with ADHD, this has an impact on you as well, in ways that others simply can’t understand.

Even in the best of circumstances, raising kids is hard, but raising extraordinary kids in a world designed for typical kids is much harder. If you’re like us, the idea of sending your kids out into a world that does not understand them probably keeps you up at night.

Over time, the mental, emotional and even physical tolls add up. As you read this, you may feel exhausted, stressed out, emotionally drained and even think that your life is out of your own control.

Few of the people in your life (parents, friends, sometimes even spouses) fully understand the impact this has on you. Nor do they understand that their well-meaning tips and advice just don’t work for a kid with ADHD. You might even feel a bit jealous of your friends and family with “typical” kids who aren’t going through all of this. You can just imagine how they must view your perpetually out-of-control life.

As a parent raising a kid with ADHD, this has an impact on you as well, in ways that others simply can’t understand.

Even in the best of circumstances, raising kids is hard, but raising extraordinary kids in a world designed for typical kids is much harder. If you’re like us, the idea of sending your kids out into a world that does not understand them probably keeps you up at night.

Over time, the mental, emotional and even physical tolls add up. As you read this, you may feel exhausted, stressed out, emotionally drained and even think that your life is out of your own control.

Few of the people in your life (parents, friends, sometimes even spouses) fully understand the impact this has on you. Nor do they understand that their well-meaning tips and advice just don’t work for a kid with ADHD. You might even feel a bit jealous of your friends and family with “typical” kids who aren’t going through all of this. You can just imagine how they must view your perpetually out-of-control life.

But the worst thing of all

is watching your child’s confidence and self-esteem erode as he experiences repeated “failures” in his life by not meeting the expectations of those around him.

You likely see the frustration or embarrassment in his eyes as he struggles in areas his typical peers do not. As you’re probably already aware, low self-esteem often leads to even more serious issues such as depression and self-defeating behaviors like substance abuse.

And if you’re anything like us, your likely approach to fixing this is to “double down” at home teaching the life skills they need to be functional at school and elsewhere in the “real world”. You establish goals and expectations, maybe implement some kind of system, and then actively manage your kids: reminding, correcting, cajoling, and interrogation. In a word: nagging.

Ironically, you’re actually making things worse by doing this.

Your children aren’t learning to take care of themselves or to manage their own lives.

They aren’t gaining confidence in their abilities to succeed in the world. In fact, they’re actually becoming more dependent on you, not less.

And your home, which should be a safe place, is now yet another place for them to not meet expectations and disappoint others.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Our Mission

We founded iGotThis with a simple mission: to build self-esteem in kids with ADHD and help Extraordinary Families function better in an ordinary world.

Our longer term mission is to change the way the world sees ADHD and those who have it. To teach the world to recognize that ADHD is simply a byproduct of being extraordinary.

Welcome.

Our Creed

1. ADHD makes kids extraordinary, not deficient.

2. Each of these extraordinary kids has both the right and the capacity to become an independent, productive adult in today’s world.

3. Every parent of these extraordinary kids has both the responsibility and the capacity to raise their children to become independent, productive adults in today’s world.

4. Every family deserves the opportunity to embrace life to its fullest.

We created the iGotThis solution to turn the tables on low self-esteem in our extraordinary children. With the right tool in hand (literally), iGotThis enables your kids to finally experience the repeated successes that build self-esteem and confidence. It’s a personal assistant in their pockets that keeps them on track, focused, and motivated and teaches them to embrace and harness their extraordinary nature. They can begin to realize they have a superpower, not a “deficit” or a “disorder”.

Imagine a life where your kids are on top of things –

maybe even more so than their typical peers.

What does that look like?

You can wake up looking forward to starting your day instead of dreading the morning battle to get them off to school. You can sit at the table and savor your coffee while your children get ready for school and out the door. All. On. Their. Own.

You’re still keeping tabs on everything, but now it’s from a distance. You provide guidance and encouragement (you’re still a parent after all!) but nagging and frantic interrogations have disappeared.

Missing the bus is a thing of the past. Household chores are getting done when they’re supposed to. Homework is turned in, grades are improving and mid-morning trips to school to drop off forgotten assignments, book bags or lunches is a thing of the past.

Most importantly, your child’s self-esteem is noticeably higher…

as she gains confidence in her ability to manage her own life. You can see it in her eyes as she enjoys new feelings of independence and competence.

You can almost hear her say “I Got This!”

And you?

Now you finally have time to take a breath and maybe do something for yourself for a change.

If that’s the life you want, then it’s time to do something about it.

It’s time to stand up and refuse to let ADHD dominate your life and the life of your kids.

It’s time to change the narrative. It’s time to act.

Most importantly, your child’s self-esteem is noticeably higher…

as she gains confidence in her ability to manage her own life. You can see it in her eyes as she enjoys new feelings of independence and competence.

You can almost hear her say “I Got This!”

And you?

Now you finally have time to take a breath and maybe do something for yourself for a change.

If that’s the life you want, then it’s time to do something about it.

It’s time to stand up and refuse to let ADHD dominate your life and the life of your kids.

It’s time to change the narrative. It’s time to act.

We’ve been there – just like you.

Worried about the self-esteem of our kids and whether they will learn the life skills they need for the future.

Discouraged that there are no tools that meet them where they are today.

Frustrated that our attempts to help them with traditional parenting methods are doing more harm than good.

So do something awesome for your family. Become a member and join us in changing the outcome for extraordinary kids everywhere, including yours.

Connect

We designed iGotThis with the whole family in mind, including parents. The truth is that almost everyone could use some help staying on top of things in today’s world and that is especially true of adults. Not only can parents use all the standard features of iGotThis, we also included “Planning Wizards” to set up common tasks like planning for holidays, important events, and important projects in your life. This is going to be a community area where other users can also submit plans that can be shared with others.

Not Just for ADHD

After having learned more about iGotThis, you may be thinking that this might be useful for any kids, not just those with ADHD. You would be right. While iGotThis was designed for exceptional kids, it’s also designed to work for every kid in the family. As a parent, you can set up projects, tasks, and/or checklists for all your kids. You can even set up tasks that are assigned to multiple kids (and even spouses!).

Teach. Learn. Grow

iGotThis is more than an application, it’s a community of Exceptional Families. When you join iGotThis, you join a family of families just like yours. iGotThis provides members with forums to interact with other families just like yours. You can teach others what works for your family, learn what works for others, lend support to others, and be supported. You can subscribe to email and mobile “ADDitives” updates that will let you know about great new information available in our resources area and blog posts or just inspire you to be awesome.

Stay on Top of Things

If you hear yourself constantly saying things like “Didja clean your room?”, “Didja do your homework?”, “Didja take out the trash?”, then you may be suffering from “Didjatitus”. This syndrome inflicts many parents of kids with ADHD. All kidding aside, what your kids hear is: “You were supposed to do this thing, but I doubt that you remembered to do it.” and that’s not healthy. Fortunately, there is a cure for “Didjatitus”. iGotThis provides a proactive alert system for parents so you can stay on top of things from afar. Parents have the option, on a task-by-task basis, to be notified when that task is started, completed, and/or missed.

Stop Nagging

“You need to clean your room”, “You need to do your homework”, “You need to take out the trash”. Nagging isn’t just tiresome and frustrating for both you and your kids, it’s also destructive to their self-esteem and studies show it can actually worsen behavior instead of improving it. There is a better way. Celebrities have personal assistants who keep them on track so these stars can focus on being, well, stars. Give your kids the same benefit. Give them a personal assistant to help keep track of things so they can focus on being awesome.

Reward Effort

The iGotThis solution has a built in rewards system that parents can configure to meet their needs. If you want to reward “effort” by giving points for just starting a task you can do that. If you only want to give points for finishing a task on time, you can do that too. Parents can assign points only for specific tasks and then specifically for starting a task, starting on time, finishing, and finishing on time. It’s totally up to you.

Additionally, parents can create their own menu of rewards that kids are able to redeem (and parents approve of course) through the app. You can set up any kind of reward you like, such as choosing what’s for dinner, a new video game, or even cash – it’s totally configurable by you! Kids can see their point totals and decide what they want to work toward and budget their points accordingly. When they’re ready to redeem their points, they use the app to submit a request. When the request is approved, the points are automatically deducted from their account. It just doesn’t get any easier.

Raise Confidence

While self-esteem is about being happy with who you are, confidence is believing that you can succeed. The best way to build confidence is to actually experience success in achieving goals and getting positive reinforcement for doing so. Using iGotThis, parents can start out with a small set of goals (e.g. brush your teeth before bed every night) that allows kids to be successful out of the gate, and then build on those achievements over time.

The app also has a built in “gamification” system where kids earn badges for achieving certain milestones (like successfully completing 10 tasks on time), that further reinforces confidence.